Hal Pictures Green Lantern Butt's FOREVER!: The Best Thing about Rebirth

Green Lantern Butt's FOREVER!

Now with Guy Gardner's Seal of Approval!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Best Thing about Rebirth

Well...to be honest, there were a LOT of things that I liked about Rebirth, such a making it possible for Parallax to be blamed on a big yellow buglike entity, so that Hal Jordan could make his dramatic return without being burdened by the fact that he had murdered an awful lot of people. I mean, even if you have miraculously returned from the dead, people tend to REMEMBER being murdered. Some of them even let it rankle.

Rebirth and Parallax also explained why Hal was being such a jerk for so long there, in Volumn II of Green Lantern. Hal had always been the golden boy, and a charmer so it was a bit hard to actually LIKE him when he spent most of his time running around and being a dick.

But what REALLY made me happy, was that Geoff Johns got rid of those goddamned white temples. MAN, I really hated those. Some men look distinguished with white or silver temples, Reed Richards for one, and I think that Jay Garrett looks quite handsome. Even Alan Scott looks nice with a little silver in his hair, not to mention Jason Blood, and that "I, Vampire" guy. Rowr!

But Hal's greying temples just didn't do it for me. It didn't make him look distinguished, it just made him look old. And, as Kalinara so eloquently pointed out in her essay on this very subject, a little creepy. Being a horndog when you're young and dashing may be conceived as charming, and Hal managed to get away with a LOT, but when you are suddenly looking fiftyish and still behaving as though you shouldn't be alone in a room with a woman, it suddenly loses a lot of its appeal.

On the other hand, I suppose the grey temples do serve a purpose. If you read an older Green Lantern issue, and Hal has them, then now you can automatically realize that Hal is going to be a jerk. He was being subtly influenced by Parallax, from the time that he started to go grey, and therefore practically ALL of his assholishness can be attributed to that! Of course Hal was a bit of a jerk before Parallax, but he was a lot more loveable.

Hal Pictures

Here's a picture of Hal with the grey temples. He practically looks as though he's foaming at the mouth! Of course, being Hal, he's still showing off his assets, while posing with a strategically ripped costume. Influence or not, he's STILL Hal.

Hal Pictures

And here he is, all neat and clean and Un-Parallaxed! He doesn't have the grey temples anymore! His actions are completely his own! So punching out Batman isn't being dickish, it is just Hal being Hal! No seriously, punching out Batman was Loooooong overdue, and besides, think of the joy that he brought to Guy Gardner's heart.

So what are YOUR favorite reasons for the Rebirth Retcon?

5 Comments:

At 11:44 AM, Blogger Erich said...

Have to agree with you, the grey temples just didn't suit Hal. For one thing, Hal's the kind of guy who'd have his ring whip up a batch of Grecian Formula the moment he saw the first touch of grey!

(PS. I made a couple of posts with you in mind over the past two days...hope you enjoy them!)

 
At 5:53 PM, Blogger Duskdog said...

I've said it before, but my favorite thing about the Parallax retcon was that it enabled me to forgive Hal for his volume 3 behavior. I always liked Hal, but he was just too much of a dick to my favorite character for me to retain that like, though I wanted to very badly. Now I can like Hal again and not have to fight off this overwhelming feeling that I shouldn't. :)

Though I am a bit disturbed by the fact that Hal doesn't seem to have been changed by his experiences very much. Guy, John, and Kyle have all grown and matured a lot, but Hal arguably went through even more traumatic stuff than they did, and yet for the most part he's the same old Hal.

 
At 7:16 PM, Blogger Sea-of-Green said...

The best thing about Rebirth was that it WASN'T merely the rebirth of Hal Jordan, but the rebirth of the entire Green Lantern Corps AND the rebirth, in a way, of SINESTRO. Sinestro is FINALLY a truly fascinating villain. He always had the potential to be one of DC's greatest villains, but it was never fully realized prior to Rebirth and its aftermath. In fact, MOST of the old, main Green Lantern villains have been reborn as truly great villains, as opposed to being mere "curiosities."

 
At 11:11 PM, Blogger Duskdog said...

I have to agree with Sea, as well. I love that the Corps is back, and Sinestro is ridiculously awesome now.

 
At 6:28 AM, Blogger SallyP said...

It's true, that Rebirth brought back Sinestro as well as Hal, which is something that I had completely overlooked.

Frankly, I think that while Hal was running around being the Spectre, poor Sinestro must have been AWFULLY frustrated. He saw his pernicious plan come to fruition when Hal became Parallax, but once the fun of THAT was over, what was there left for Sinestro to do? Hang out on Qward and abuse the Weaponeers? That probably got old real fast. He doesn't like Kyle very much, but his relationship with Kyle and the rest of the Lanterns (of which there weren't any) seems to lack the...SPICE of his relationship with Hal.

I think that just as Hal needs Sinestro to be his villain, Sinestro also needs Hal, for the same reason.

 

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